John,

I do not know where Wayne got the information in his book regarding Eickhorn. I do know that Eickhorn and WKC sometimes traded and sold parts back and forth, but I don't know about etched KS98 blades. New information comes to light every day and I am sure Wayne made his statement in the light of what he knew at the time. The same is true with all authors, including yours truly. We can all be mistaken.

Terry,

I can agree that the line is blurry with bayonet makers versis retailer/distributors. I looked at Goins and he does not list Curna as a maker or even with a topical mark on pocketknives. But, perhaps he had just not seen one and Fisher had. John Walter does not list Curna as a maker in either his "The sword and bayonet makers of Imperial Germany 1871-1918" or his "German Military Letter Codes" that is derived from the official Fertigungskennzeichen...

I could accept this Eickhorn etch on a Curna marked blade if Curna is what we might consider an assembler/retailer. Kind of like Burgsmiller marked NPEA daggers or Waffen L�sche marked Luftwaffe Forestry sidearms. I might even accept the somewhat poor etch as an Eickhorn second quality blade that was wholesaled. One would almost have to have the thing in hand to determine that the etch was not put on an old original blade though. That is an old trick of the German fakers and it makes a very convincing upgrade to an otherwise more common and slow moving item. This was a common method of selling old KS and police bayonets to enhance them with a postwar etched blade as most of us are familiar with.

Len,

I too hope it is a real piece but one must be careful and look at the red flags (of which there are several). One other thing that has not been mentioned is the "SOLINGEN" stamp on the obverse of the blade. I tend to equate this generic stamp to second quality blades that are sold without the maker's name. IMHO, this is a good sign that this blade may in fact be an Eickhorn blade that did not pass quality control but was not so poor as to be scrapped. I can devise a scenario where this blade might have been wholesaled to Curna (with the generic SOLINGEN stamp) who then stamped their own name on it.

Len, look closely at the etch and the stamps. Is the solingen stamp placed on the blade differently than the Curna stamp. Was the Curna stamp applied after the blade was plated? It appears to break through the plating. I tend to believe the bayonet is good from the photos.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson